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" WEEKLY WATCH 106 " <info

 

Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:54:20 GMT

 

 

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WEEKLY WATCH number 106

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from Claire Robinson, WEEKLY WATCH editor

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Dear all

 

Despite the eagerness of much of the world's media and governments to

dub the tsunami catastrophe an unfathomable 'act of God' or nature, it

may be that much of the responsibility for some of the tragic

consequences lies with powerful corporate interests that have

devastated natural

buffer ecosystems in pursuit of profit (TSUNAMI RESPONSES). Though this

is not directly a GM issue, Devinder Sharma's analysis is so important

and its message so shockingly under-reported that we have included it

here.

 

Until policy makers take responsibility for the consequences of their

actions, we will be hit by not-so-random disasters. At the same time, we

shall continue to be fleeced by corporations as they sell us

ever-more-expensive ways to 'fix' nature - when the problem was never

nature's in

the first place.

 

Speaking of corporate fixes, news continues to emerge of the massive

scale of Monsanto's criminal activities in bribing Indonesian officials

to accept its GM crops (MONSANTO IN INDONESIA). And ISAAA has produced

its annual crop of misleading figures over GM uptake (LOBBYWATCH

SPECIAL). Finally, in a desperate attempt to convince us of the

benefits of

GM, Prakash's AgBioWorld has enlisted the persuasive powers of... a

nuke-touting rabbit (LOBBYWATCH REGULAR). I kid you not.

 

Claire claire

www.gmwatch.org / www.lobbywatch.org

 

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CONTENTS

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MONSANTO IN INDONESIA

LOBBYWATCH SPECIAL - ISAAA's hype-fest

YEARLY REVIEWS: Kenya, Philippines, world (GRAIN)

AFRICA

ASIA

AUSTRALASIA

TSUNAMI RESPONSES

LOBBYWATCH REGULAR

 

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MONSANTO IN INDONESIA

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+ MONSANTO BRIBED " AT LEAST 140 " OFFICIALS AND OTHERS

More details have emerged about the Monsanto bribe scandal, in which

the company bribed Indonesian officials and others to smooth the entry

into the country of its GM crops. Monsanto gave bribes totaling a minimum

of $700,000 to at least 140 current or former Indonesian government

officials and their family members. Which leaves one wondering what kind

of numbers could have been on the payroll worldwide?

 

The itchy-fingered ones include a senior official in the environment

ministry, a senior official in the agriculture ministry, an official in

the National Planning and Development Board (Bappenas), as well as 140

other bureaucrats between 1997 and 2002.

 

Monsanto agreed to pay USD 1.5 million in penalties to settle US

criminal and civil charges.

 

The largest single set of bribes was for the purchase of land and the

design and construction of a house in the name of a wife of a senior

Ministry of Agriculture official, which cost Monsanto $373,990.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4776

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4780

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4793

 

+ MONSANTO BOSS URGED TO QUIT

Environmentalists and Members of the Scottish Parliament are demanding

that Monsanto's president and chief executive in Scotland, Hugh Grant,

be kicked off the International Advisory Board set up by Scottish

Enterprise, which helps Scottish companies develop their businesses

abroad.

Mark Ruskell MSP, the Green Party's environment spokesman, told the

Sunday Herald, " It is plainly ridiculous that a senior figure from

Monsanto is at the heart of informing the Executive's strategy for

Scotland's

economic development. "

 

This was supported by Jonathan Matthews of GM Watch who told the paper,

" This man is steeped in a

company culture that allowed this to happen. " he added, " What has

emerged about corrupt practices in Indonesia may just be the tip of the

iceberg. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4779

 

+ INDONESIA'S CORRUPTION COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE MONSANTO

Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has begun to

investigate the Monsanto bribery case.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4780

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4793

 

+ HOW MONSANTO'S GM COTTON WAS BROUGHT TO INDONESIA

It's interesting, in the context of the corruption scandal, to revisit

the way in which Monsanto's GM seed was finally brought into Indonesia

in March 2001.

 

According to the Jakarta Post, " A total of 40 tons of genetically

modified Bollgard cotton seed arrived at the Makassar airport from South

Africa amid strong protests from environmentalists... A number of

activists, waving banners reading " Reject Genetically Modified Cotton

in South

Sulawesi " , tried to intercept the convoy of trucks carrying the cotton

seeds, which contain Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), and block them from

leaving the airport. ...

 

" The authorities had apparently concealed the seed's arrival from the

press. The provincial plantation office denied reports of the seed's

arrival on Thursday morning, but at approximately 1pm on Thursday The

Jakarta Post noticed a Russian Ilyusin transport plane ... unloading the

seed in the airport's military area. The wide-bodied plane ... was

tightly guarded, and reporters and photographers were barred from

approaching

the plane. Members of the Indonesian Air Force guarding the area said

that reporters must back off for security reasons. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4782

 

+ DIRTY TRICKS AND BROKEN PROMISES - MONSANTO'S LEGACY IN INDONESIA

The farmers who grew Monsanto's seed did less well out of it than the

officials who took the bribes. One Indonesian farmer who grew Monsanto's

GM cotton said, " The company didn't give the farmer any choice, they

never intended to improve our well being, they just put us in a debt

circle, took away our independence and made us their slave forever. "

 

In the first year of planting, there were reported failures of Bt

cotton - the crop succumbed to drought and hundreds of hectares were

attacked by pests. The drought had led to a pest population explosion

on Bt

cotton, but not on other cotton varieties. As a result, instead of

reducing pesticide use, farmers had to use a different mix and larger

amounts

of pesticides to control the pests. Furthermore, the Bt cotton -

engineered to be resistant to a pest that is not a major problem in

Sulawesi

- was susceptible to other more serious pests.

More at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4783

 

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LOBBYWATCH SPECIAL - ISAAA's hype-fest

---------------------------

 

+ ISAAA'S GM PROPAGANDA MISLEADING

The annual media-hype fest from industry body ISAAA is under way:

" Eight million farmers in 17 countries grew engineered crops on 200

million

acres last year, a 20 percent increase over the 167 million acres in

2003, according to a report released by the International Service for the

Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications. "

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/science/10627915.htm

 

Here's an antidote from the Australia-based Network of Concerned

Farmers:

 

" It is not that farmers benefit from GM technology, farmers are not

being offered anything that can not be achieved with non-GM

biotechnology, " said Julie Newman of the NCF.

 

" Figures show the area of GM has increased in certain countries but

this is because most of these farmers have relied on heavy subsidies from

governments or from the GM companies themselves. "

 

Mrs Newman explained that US and China rely mostly on government

subsidies to compensate for increasing costs and decreasing commodity

prices

caused by overproduction. Five years ago, International Cotton Advisory

Committee reported that both Chinese and US cotton farmers relied on

government subsidies for up to half of their income in order to counter

falling cotton prices and the prices have continued to decline.

 

Developing countries, such as Argentina, have been supplied free seed,

chemical, machinery and expertise from the GM companies which has

transformed primitive but sustainable farming practices into what has

been

reported as a soybean monoculture causing massive exodus of traditional

farmers and crops.

 

Mrs Newman said, " Australian farmers will need a market edge to sell

our products with premiums in order to maintain viability. Farmers will

have difficulty competing with heavily subsidised countries as the

commodity price continues to fall but differentiating our product to

cater

to consumer non-GM demands will allow greater market access and possibly

premium prices. GM crops are not the success claimed, it is

exploitation of agricultural resources and it is not sustainable for

farmers. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4791

 

" The GM Bubble " : Claire Robinson questions ISAAA's inflated figures of

GM crop uptake and planting

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=3639

 

+ GM DECEPTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

ISAAA-inspired media reports are claiming that developing world farmers

can't get enough GM seed. ISAAA has focused particularly on the

Philippines and has had the much-used Philippines farmer, Edwin

Paraluman,

join ISAAA's founder and chairman, Clive James on a conference call with

reporters to tell the media about the benefits to the small farmer of

growing GM.

 

The report claims that a massive expansion in acreage for Monsanto's Bt

corn has occurred in the country, but Roberto Verzola in the

Philippines explains how that expansion has been achieved:

 

" The Mon810 Bt corn is distributed in the Philippines without proper

labels, under the brand name DK818YG. Farmers are seldom informed that

the seeds they are getting are genetically-engineered, or that these are

the controversial Bt corn which had been the subject of controversies

in the media and public debates. Often, it is the government which buys

from Monsanto or its distributors the Bt corn seeds, which are then

given for free or at subsidized prices to unsuspecting farmers. Thus, it

is only through stealth, deception and the complicity of government

technicians, agriculturists and policy-makers that Monsanto has

managed to

increase the hectarage of Bt corn in the Philippines, at the expense of

the Filipino tax payer at that. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4795

 

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YEARLY REVIEWS 2004 (EXCERPTS ONLY)

-------

 

+ KENYA

In 2004, suspicions that the GM industry is targeting Kenya as the

doorway to East Africa were confirmed beyond doubt. Several pro-GM lobby

groups based in Nairobi have been attempting to influence policy in

favour of GMOs. In response, a coalition of NGOs has emerged, calling

itself

Kenya GMO Concern (KEGCO) to open the dialogue and raise awareness

about the risks of GMOs.

Read on and see the remarkable list of Kenya's bumper crop of GM

lobbyists at

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4787

 

+ PHILIPPINES

The creeping contamination of local corn varieties is of serious

concern because of at least two reports of immunological reactions among

farmers in southern Philippines living beside Bt corn fields, possibly

due

to exposure to the Bt corn pollen. We are awaiting the final results of

the scientific study by Dr Terje Traavik of the Institute of Gene

Ecology of Norway regarding this matter.

 

The next GE crops in the pipeline for commercialization are rice and

papaya. The government has been conducting field trials of BB-resistant

rice and Golden Rice. Government researchers have likewise publicly

expressed their commitment to release a commercial ring spot

virus-resistant GE papaya " within three years " .

 

The GE industry lobby group in the Philippines is the Biotech Coalition

of the Philippines (BCP), whose work is funded by ISAAA which in turn

gets its funds from the industry. BCP includes multi-facial GE lobbyists

who sometimes wear government hats, scientist hats, or NGO hats, as the

situation demands. It even includes a bishop and a priest among its

stable of speakers.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4795

 

+ WORLDWIDE: GRAIN ON GM CROPS IN 2004

GM contamination was at the centre of the push for and resistance to GM

crops last year. There's little doubt that industry is deliberately

pursuing contamination to make the global acceptance of GM a fait

accompli. It wants people to believe that the only option left is to

'manage'

the co-existence of GM and non-GM agriculture - turning non-GM

agriculture into a tightly regulated system governed by onerous

contracts that

leaves farmers more vulnerable to the power of agribusiness. But the

inevitability of GM contamination is clarifying things for the resistance

against GM crops. ...

 

The very science behind GM is increasingly being questioned for being

too simplistic, reductionist and outdated. In direct contradiction of

industry propaganda, studies from last year confirmed that 'junk DNA' is

essential to biological function, that shooting genes into cells does

more harm than good and causes many unintended consequences and that the

promised yield increases and pest tolerances from GM crops are empty.

[There are a lot of very useful links available with the online version

of this article]

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4784

 

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AFRICA

-------

 

+ KENYA SMALL FARMERS OPPOSE GM BILL

The Kenya Small Scale Farmers' Forum, representing farmers from 10

districts across Kenya, has formally objected to the current draft of the

Biosafety Bill on GM crops. The Forum says the draft Bill in its current

form does not protect small farmers. The Forum will instead support a

Private Members' Motion seeking to outlaw GM crops.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4781

 

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ASIA

-------

 

+ INDIA: FARMERS OPPOSE PATENT ORDINANCE

Farmers' bodies have decided to oppose the recent ordinance which seeks

to introduce patent monopolies on seeds. The agitation will be launched

on January 30. They have decided to oppose the proposed amendments to

the Seeds Act and government policies leading to privatisation of the

water sector and market monopolies.

 

As an alternative, the farmers' bodies will draft a new agriculture

policy and submit it to the government.

 

Spokesperson Dr Vandana Shiva said: " The Patent Ordinance has proposed

patent monopolies on seeds, genes and markers. This will lead to

farmers' paying royalties to seed companies. Further, the proposed

amendments

to the Seeds Act, like compulsory registration, will prevent farmers

from using farm-saved seeds. We have decided to oppose all these measures

and boycott multinational companies producing agro-chemicals and seeds,

including the genetically modified ones. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4786

 

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AUSTRALASIA

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+ NEW ZEALAND: KFC USES GM-FREE SOY CHICKEN FEED

KFC has announced it is " committed " to continue using GE-free soy from

Inghams Enterprises LTD " as long as world supply enabled it to " .

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/waikatotimes/0,2106,3136633a6579,00.html

 

The move follows pressure and actions from Greenpeace, other campaign

groups, and the public. In one action, an anonymous underground group

called the 'Finger Stick in Glue Crew' glued shut the locks of 10 KFC

outlets, causing thousands of dollars' worth of damage.

 

KFC did not give in gracefully. Within days of Greenpeace launching a

spoof KFC website (www.kfc.org.nz), KFC lawyers made threats against the

Scoop news site (www.scoop.co.nz) for posting a Greenpeace advertising

banner linking to the spoof KFC web site.

 

" It is telling that KFC's lawyers have written to Scoop three times but

haven't contacted Greenpeace directly at all, " says Abel. " Rather than

get into a public debate with Greenpeace they choose to try and shut

down comment. Its a classic example of a SLAPP [strategic Lawsuit Against

Public Participation - in which a corporation threatens to sue a

campaigner in order to shut them up], " says Abel.

 

The site has attracted hundreds of e-mails from the public and

generated over one thousand messages to KFC.

 

A poll commissioned by Greenpeace and conducted by research group

Colmar Brunton in October showed that 80% of KFC customers wouldn't mind

paying an extra 2 cents for chicken fed on non-GM soy.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4794

 

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TSUNAMI RESPONSES

-------

 

+ HELP VIA CAMPESINA'S TSUNAMI RELIEF EFFORTS

The agricultural reform NGO, Via Campesina is raising funds for

grassroots tsunami relief and rebuilding efforts coordinated directly

by its

member organizations in Southeastern Asia.

Visit Via Campesina's Online Donation Page

https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=4589

Learn More about Via Campesina's Efforts

http://www.foodfirst.org/action/2005/tsunamirelief.html

 

+ GM LOBBY EXPLOITS TSUNAMI

Predictably, those desperate to push their own self-interested agendas

are keen to exploit the tsunami disaster for their own purposes.

 

The US's inevitable dumping of its GM-contaminated food aid on the

area, rather than giving the financial support to allow the purchase of

non-GM foods available in the region, is one form of this.

 

Just as predictably, the pro-GM AgBioView list has already run a

malicious article headlined, " Enviro Wackos Rejoice over Tsunami

Devastation " . The article claims, " some environmentalists are actually

celebrating

the tidal wave that killed nearly 200,000 people, saying it rid the

coastal area of development and other forms of human contamination. "

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/7/223750.shtml

 

On reading on, however, one discovers that these " Enviro Whackos " are

people like the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra - the massively

rich Thai businessman who recently proposed ending Thailand's GM

moratorium! The Thai PM is a " Whacko " , it seems, because he said the

tsunami

had " swept away unplanned and possible illegal building, creating an

opportunity to regulate growth " during redevelopment.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/1/7/223750.shtml

 

We've also had the likes of Lord May, President of the UK's Royal

Society trying to bump up the research budgets by calling for development

assistance to be controlled by experts in " science, technology and

innovation " . Such spending, says May with timely spin, " is an investment

against disasters " .

 

But while we're being offered images of hi-tech driven innovation and

development as the only security in the face of dangerous " nature " ,

there are other conclusions that could be drawn from the tsunami.

 

Devinder Sharma pointed to this in his piece (excerpt below) on the

contribution to the disaster of the profit-driven destruction of natural

eco-systems.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4785

 

More food for thought on the lessons of the tsunami comes courtesy of

the indigenous people of the Andaman and Nicobar islands, who are

thought to have escaped the tsunami thanks to traditional warning systems

that interpret bird and marine animal behaviour.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4789

 

The Sentinelese tribe, who live a paleolithic lifestyle on an island

between India and Burma, seem to have emerged unscathed from the tsunami

and have refused food aid. Hours before the tsunami struck,

tribespeople saw streams of ants and other insects pouring out of the

ground and

heading uphill. The people followed, and were safe.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1431442_4,00.html

 

And wildlife officials in Sri Lanka report that despite the tragically

large loss of human life, there are few reported animal deaths.

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4789

 

+ TSUNAMI, MANGROVES AND MARKET ECONOMY by Devinder Sharma [shortened]

As the first news reports of the devastation caused by the tsunami

killer waves began to pour in, a newsreader asked his correspondent

reporting from the scene of destruction in the south of India: " Any

idea about

how much is the loss to business? Can you find that out because that

would be more important for our business leaders? "

 

Little did the newscaster realise that the tsunami disaster was more or

less the outcome of faulty business and economics ... It was the

outcome of an insane economic system - led by the World Bank and IMF -

that

believes in usurping environment, nature and human lives for the sake of

unsustainable economic growth for a few.

 

Since the 1980s, the Asian sea-coast region has been plundered by the

large industrialised shrimp firms that brought

environmentally-unfriendly aquaculture to its sea shores. Shrimp

cultivation, rising to over 8

billion tonnes a year in the year 2000, had already played havoc with

the fragile eco-systems. The 'rape-and-run' industry, as the Food and

Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) once termed it, was

largely funded by the World Bank. Nearly 72 per cent of the shrimp

farming is confined to Asia.

 

The expansion of shrimp farming was at the cost of tropical mangroves -

amongst the world's most important ecosystems. Each acre of mangrove

forest destroyed results in an estimated 676 pounds loss in marine

harvest. Mangrove swamps have been nature's protection for the coastal

regions from the large waves, weathering the impact of cyclones, and

serving

as a nursery for three-fourth of the commercial fish species that spend

part of their life cycle in the mangrove swamps. Mangroves in any case

were one of the world's most threatened habitats but instead of

replanting the mangrove swamps, faulty economic policies only hastened

its

disappearance. Despite warning by ecologists and environmentalists, the

World Bank turned a deaf ear.

 

Shrimp farming continued its destructive spree, eating away more than

half of the world's mangroves. Since the 1960's, for instance,

aquaculture and other industrial activities in Thailand resulted in a

loss of

over 65,000 hectares of mangroves. In Indonesia, Java lost 70 per cent of

its mangroves, Sulawesi 49 per cent and Sumatra 36 per cent. So much so

that at the time the tsunami struck in all its fury, logging companies

were busy axing mangroves in the Aceh province of Indonesia for exports

to Malaysia and Singapore.

 

In India, mangrove cover has been reduced to less than a third of its

original in the past three decades. Between 1963 and 1977 India

destroyed nearly 50 per cent of its mangroves. Local communities were

forcibly

evicted to make way for the shrimp farms. In Andhra Pradesh, more than

50,000 people were forcibly removed and millions displaced throughout

the coastal belt to make room for the aquaculture farms. Whatever

remained of the mangroves was cut down by the hotel industry. Aided and

abetted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of

Industries, builders moved in to ravage the coastline.

 

Five-star hotels, golf courses, industries, and mansions sprung up all

along disregarding the concern being expressed by environmentalists.

These two ministries worked overtime to dilute the Coastal Regulation

Zone (CRZ) norms thereby allowing the hotels to even take over the 500

meter buffer that was supposed to be maintained along the beach. In an

era

of market economy ... the bureaucrats are in league with the

industrialists and big business interests. Much of the responsibility

for the

huge death toll therefore rests with the government and the free market

apologists.

Read on at http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4785

 

-------

LOBBYWATCH REGULAR

-------

 

+ SCIENCE HACKS WANT SYNGENTA'S DOUGH

Every June, half a dozen science writers get a GBP 2,500 science

writers' gong from pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline at a major awards

bash. But

alas, no more. Glaxo has slashed funding for the scheme, forcing the

poor scribblers to take their begging bowls elsewhere.

 

Led by the science writers' chairman, Pallab Ghosh of the BBC, they

have now turned to GM food manufacturer Syngenta. And should that fail,

the resourceful lads and lasses have already targeted British Nuclear

Fuels. And after that? Well, there is always British American Tobacco or

Monsanto...

Source: Private Eye http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4777

 

Pallab Ghosh - a GM WATCH profile

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=203

 

+ SCIENCE LOBBY (AGAIN) BLAMES MEDIA FOR PUBLIC HOSTILITY TO GM

In a letter soon to be published (in edited form!) in the science

journal Nature, Peter Melchett takes issue with a Nature editorial which

claimed, " British scientists have seen the public swayed by misleading

media coverage of genetically modified (GM) food and vaccines. "

 

Peter Melchett writes, " I do not imagine you had in mind the constant

stream of pro-genetic engineering articles in the national press through

most of the 1990s, nor the endless, uncritical reporting of miracle

crops that would cut pesticide use, end blindness and feed the world,

still less your own shameful record in withdrawing the paper by

Chapela et

al on GM contamination in Mexico. What evidence do you have for

suggesting that media coverage was biased one way or another - or is

this an

area where you feel scientists should be content to rely on mere

assertion and personal prejudice?

 

" Whatever reporting you had in mind your comment is ill-informed and

inaccurate. The evidence in the scientific literature on the impact of

media coverage on public attitudes to GM food suggests that public

attitudes to GM food in a number of European countries were formed

independently of the scale and nature of the coverage of GM issues in

the media. "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4788

 

+ EMBRACING THE BIONUCLEAR BUNNY!

CS Prakash's pro-GM AgBioView list this week brought rs news

of the " incredible potential of pharming " and how it is being obstructed

by " baseless accusations and fearmongering by special-interest

food-nanny groups. " The pharma eulogy comes courtesy of the

bionuclearbunny.blogspot.

 

BioNuclear proclaims, " Our future is Biotech and Nuclear. Embrace the

change. Embrace the Bunny. " The site has links to Prakash's " AgBioWorld "

and a site promoting Paul Driessen's book, " Eco-imperialism, Green

Power, Black Death " .

http://www.eco-imperialism.com/

 

AgBioView also has a brief excerpt from an article in Britain's Daily

Telegraph, " Organic Ketchups Boost Fight Against Cancers " . The excerpt

is immediately trumped on AgBioView by a piece from Tom DeGregori,

assuring the faithful that anything organic can do, " Biotech Can Do

Better! "

 

DeGregori is a board member of the American Council on Science and

Health - an organisation described by PR Watch's John Stauber as an

" industry front group that produces PR ammunition for the food

processing and

chemical industries. "

 

He's also a fierce Prakash loyalist who famously once used AgBioView to

laud the " fake persuader " Andura Smetacek, later shown to be an e-mail

front used by Monsanto to post poison-pen attacks on its critics.

 

Next up after DeGregori is more tsunami exploitation (see TSUNAMI

RESPONSES below). An article headed, " Agricultural Reforms Best Help for

Tsunami-Hit Countries " refers us to a report released by the

International

Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) that " calls on all countries...

to provide more resources for agricultural research in poor countries,

particularly in the development of genetically modified (GM) crops "

which " are key to reducing poverty " .

 

AgBioView quotes the BioNuclear Bunny again: " the rich, fat busy-bodies

of the developed world " are poking their noses in other peoples'

business and trying to tell them how to run their lives, " because they

just

know better than everyone else " . These are the " professional busy-bodies

and worriers of the filthy-rich environmental and anti-globalization

organizations " who " have convinced many countries to raise the bar so

high that it is making it difficult for those nations on a budget (a real

budget) to get any of that great [GM] research out the door where it

can do some good " .

 

The result, according to the Bunny - " every year, thousands upon

thousands of desperate women and children die of malnutrion, hunger,

and the

endemic diseases of the under-nourished " . All of which, it is implied,

would be cured by GM crops.

 

Of course, anyone who's looked at some of these cure-all crops in

detail - like the GM sweet potato that was touted to fight hunger and

poverty but turns out to have been little more than a PR hoax - might

have

reason for scepticism.

 

And, funnily enough, it just so happens that the man behind the IFPRI

report, about which the BioNuclear Bunny waxes so lyrical, is none other

than Joel Cohen - one of the originators of the sweet potato project!

More: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4792

 

 

 

 

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